Married/Trivia
*In Helga's dream, the outfit she wears to save Arnold is the same one she wears in a promo of “Hey Arnold! The Movie’’, the only difference being that her boots lack high heels. *About 10:15 into the episode, the Twin Towers of the former World Trade Center can be seen in the background of Helga's dream. This episode was produced in 2000, a year before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, but was aired exactly eight months after the attacks. Other landmarks that can be seen are the Brooklyn Bridge, Statue of Liberty, Chrysler Building and Central Park. *On the day this episode first aired, there was a 4-hour Hey Arnold! marathon called "Helga's Aching Heart", consisting of past Helga-centric episodes and this episode's premiere. *For a long time, this was one of few episodes to not be apart of TeenNick's regular rotation on The Splat until Valentine's Day of 2017 when this episode along with "April Fool's Day" (although the second half was missing in the broadcast) and "Arnold's Valentine". *In Arnold's nightmare, he and Helga are still wearing their wedding clothes while in Helga's dream, they wear different outfits. *In Helga's dream, Arnold takes her last name, continuing the trend of Arnold's official last name not being revealed. *Eugene and Nadine can be seen in the background while Lila is being carried away by Stinky and Harold. *Arnold's favorite number is 5, his favorite color is blue and he was born on the 7th. *Because of Arnold's nightmare, this episode was ranked #54 in the "Top 100 Greatest Moments In Nicktoon History" countdown, and was the highest-ranked Hey Arnold! episode to make it into the countdown. *When Helga is asleep in her bed she say “I Do” repeatedly. It’s a reference to the episode Best Man when Helga was saying it out loud in her daydream while she’s out with Tish Wittenberg after she asks her to be her maid of honor, at the bridal store while trying on her bridesmaids dress and after she catches Tish’s bouquet, faints when Arnold tried to revive her. Cultural References *In Arnold's dream, Eugene plays a "Zeppelin" organ and Helga has a Purdyvision TV. *After Helga gives her inaugural speech, she gives the crowd and cameras "V signs" with both her hands. This is in reference to President Nixon's characteristic gesture, the most notable instance was on August 9, 1974, the day of his resignation. *Right after the inaugural speech, a character can be seen in the crowd sporting a mohawk and a military jacket. This is a reference to Travis Bickle, the protagonist/anti-hero from the movie Taxi Driver. This character has been seen on various occasions throughout the series, such as the episode "Cool Jerk". *In Helga's dream, Lila's mask is similar to one of the masks of "Cobra Commander", a fictional terrorist from the eponymous G.I. Joe franchise. *The dress that Helga wears in her dream on the Gondola is a reference to the Disney movie version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Continuity *In Arnold's dream, his and Helga's wedding takes place in the same church where Jack and Tish Witterberg got remarried in the episode "Best Man". Story Analysis *In Arnold's nightmare, Bob and Miriam look and act exactly as they do in reality, which is definitive evidence that Arnold is aware of the dysfunction in Helga's home. *Helga's confession in Arnold's dream is strong evidence that Arnold (or to be more precise, his subconscious) is aware that Helga has feelings for him, and that she's mean because she's afraid to show them. *Her dream confession also shares some similarities with her soliloquy from behind the trash can, implying Arnold heard some of it, without realizing it was about him. *It has been suggested that Phoebe's daydream about a married Helga and Arnold is actually a quick flashforward of their adult life. This is supported by Craig Bartlett, who's confirmed that Arnold and Helga do end up getting together when they're older and eventually get married and have children as adults. *The correlating motif of clothing and maturity in each dream is further meant to underscore the contrasting feelings between Arnold and Helga over marriage: Arnold's image is the nightmarish demise of whatever promise and meaning he felt the future had in store; right down to the fact that a) none of his classmates seemed to have physically matured (save for Gerald's goatee) and b) Helga's refusal to move past her schoolyard attitudes towards him, let alone fledge from Casa Pataki. Time has not only come to a grinding halt for Arnold, but has also turned to tatters with each passing day (kind of like a corpse decaying from the moment of death onward). Every bratty kid Arnold sires, every grueling shift at the Beeper Emporium Arnold works, every minute Arnold deals with the dysfunctional in-laws, and most importantly every fight he and his wife have only serves to exacerbate his loss of will/disenchantment in dealing with married life with Helga. And for him, what other manifestation of that moment can there be but his suit, once so sharp and clean, bearing the emotional brunt of his abuse while Helga's dress remains as untouched as the day they wed. By contrast, Helga clearly has a rosier outlook over the thought of marrying Arnold; one where her feelings for him are not only reciprocated and then some, but as husband and wife the two of them embark on a lifetime of shared goals and memories, culminating with Helga becoming (presumably the first) female president. Part of what emphasizes married life as a fresh new milestone for the two of them is the many wardrobe changes/signs of physical maturity they and the rest of the people in their lives have gone through in her dream: Bob is balding, Miriam has gone gray, Stinky has a mustache, Phil and Gertie are dead and most striking of all Arnold's trademark blue hat has gone the way of Helga's pigtails. The one exception appears to be Lila Sawyer whose failure to move on with/accept life is evidenced by her still being clad in an ill-fitting and tattered version of her childhood outfit. Category:Married Category:Episode trivia